Question: Why did the author of the book, that this movie is based on, hate this movie version so much?
Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more
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Question: I don't get it. How can an eclipse stop evolved humans from accessing their abilities?
Chosen answer: As of season three it has not been explained. The characters gained powers after the solar eclipse of the first episode and temporarily lost them during "The Eclipse". It could be some form of cosmological radiation, Hiro and Ando make Superman analogies (who only has special powers because of Earth's yellow sun), Suresh believes it may be coincidental, or it might possibly be related to the catalyst, or it could be influenced by an as yet unseen character.
Question: World War 3 may have been the reason for the nuclear war, but what caused World War 3?
Chosen answer: It's never stated what caused it (in this movie, at least). So much time has passed that historical records have been lost or destroyed, and the remaining humans are no longer literate, nor do they have any inkling about their species' past. The apes also do not appear to know the reason, only that mankind somehow destroyed their own civilization.
Question: Why does Ben need to find the city of gold to beat the kidnap charge? The President's story of "We got trapped and he saved my life" would work just as well without the discovery.
Answer: Ben lured the President to the tunnel to ask him about the Presidents' Secret Book, knowing the President wouldn't admit its existence in front of anyone else. This also means the President couldn't tell secret service what really happened. Ben told him he needed to see the book "to lead us to the discovery of the greatest Native American treasure of all time." The President doesn't know if this is true or if he has some other criminal plan for the book. Finding the treasure shows the President that Ben was telling the truth. Had Ben been lying, the federal charge of kidnapping the President would put Ben in prison for life, effectively punishing him for the kidnapping as well as for lying to the President. Considering Ben had already discovered a massive historical treasure once before, and knowing the recently tarnished name of Ben's family, the President was willing to trust that Ben wasn't lying about his intention and gave him the information needed.
Question: What has ended up with Max? Billy promised to go back and release him, but we never see that happen, and no explanation is given for that in the Epilogue. Is Max a real figure? If he is, what has happened to him? Did he manage to escape, or did he die in prison?
Answer: Max WAS a real character, and a Dutchman in real life, rather than an English one as portrayed in the movie. He eventually got paroled and later treatment for a severe drug addiction he had too.
Answer: It's never stated what happened to Max. The film was a heavily fictionalized version of Billy Hayes' book, and the Max character appears to be fictional as well or at least a composite of other real-life imprisoned Westerners that Hayes met while in a Turkish prison.
Question: I know there is one quick shot of a real iguana when Robert Davi puts it on the couch, but are all the other shots fake? And why did they use a fake iguana and not a real one in the rest of the shots?
Chosen answer: Reptiles are difficult to train and handle, and can hold up filming by being uncooperative. Using a reptile model would simply be easier and faster. Long hours on a movie set is also stressful on animals. There may be other shots with the real iguana, but I can't say for sure.
Question: I know that this is such a small detail, but it's been bugging me for a while and google has been no help. In the original series, the command uniforms were gold and security was red, but in Next Gen and everything thereafter, it has been reversed to command being red and security being gold. Anyone know why the change was made? I'm looking for a real world explanation, not a continuity one as I already found one of those. Thanks.
Answer: When ST:TNG went into production, television had changed drastically from the time the original series aired in the 1960s. Not only were special effects far more advanced, but editing, camera angles, set design, lighting, color schemes, types of film used, and so on, were all very different. It was likely a decision of what looked best from an artistic-design point-of-view to give the series a fresh, updated look as well as to reflect how much Star Fleet had changed since Captain James T. Kirk's time. Red is also a very prominent color, and it draws the viewer's eye to it, and to the character wearing it. Therefore, that became the command color. Also of note is that the "old" uniforms, as of the Star Trek original series movies, had more or less universally switched to red uniforms with smaller department insignia. Thus, chronologically they removed colour coding in favour of pure red for everyone, and then decided to bring back colour coding - but retained the red for command instead of switching back to the old way.
Question: What exactly do the machines do on a day-to-day basis? What's their reason for existing? Is it solely to maintain and perfect the Matrix, develop more efficient programmes and hunt down the remaining humans? Are they planning universal domination? Or just designing more cute inquisitive little metal spiders with which to fill their cities?
Chosen answer: The machines tried to peacefully found their own nation before the war that sent the last of the human race underground. So their society would not be entirely unlike our own. They perform tasks similar to a society based on agriculture would. They are not planning any sort of domination. They just wanted to be free and respected as mankind's equals. Humanity wouldn't have it, so they did what they had to do to survive.
Question: It wasn't addressed in the movie, but did NASA intend for Lev Andropov to go on the mission, assuming the RSS didn't blow up? It seems odd that later on, he has his own pressure suit and spacesuit without any explanation.
Question: In the end of the movie just after Ron sacrifices himself to the Queen to win the chess game, he falls to the floor unconscious. But before the scene cuts, a rock flies past his head, he winces, and it leaves a red mark. Did he really get it by a rock during filming or was it added in later?
Answer: The debris from the exploding chess piece was not real; this looks like a combination of computer-generated special effect (CGI) as well some type of a light-weight material (such as Styrofoam) made to appear real and is tossed at Rupert Grint (Ron) from off-screen. Considering the stringent safety standards and precautions that are employed in today's film industry, particularly regarding child actors, and also the multiple times that scenes are shot to get it right, it is unlikely that this was anything that actually could have hurt him.
Question: During Neo's final fight with Smith it looks as if Smith has turned every living person (including other "human" programmes) in The Matrix into versions of himself - have The Merovingian and Persephone also been captured and morphed? It's an odd thought that these two seemingly powerful figures would have given up without a fight, although The Oracle was turned too so it might not be implausible. Any mention of them again in any other media?
Chosen answer: ##The Oracle deliberately choose to be assimilated so she could help Neo in the final fight. The Merovingian (and Persephone) had access to the Trainman and so, most likely, would have either hid in the machine world or in the Trainman's half-way Mobile Station. The both played a large role in the (now defunct) Matrix Online Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game.
Question: If the machines have managed to locate Zion, wouldn't it have been easier for them to try and find the main door through which all the hovercrafts fly and blast their way through that, as opposed to digging through a HELL of a lot of pure rock to get into the city?
Chosen answer: To do so, they'd have to search a vast labyrinth of tunnels under the earth, contending with human ships, booby traps, dead ends and so forth, plus they can guarantee that they'll be facing a defensive bottleneck of apocalyptic proportions. Once they establish the location, much easier to just take the direct route and drill straight down to it, rather than waste time and resources attempting to locate the entrance used by the human ships. Plus the drilling method has the added advantage of bypassing most of the Zion defence grid and putting their forces directly into the dock, rather than having to battle their way there.
Question: This might be a silly question, but is Jessi really the person who attacked Lori? Even though Jessi had Lori's necklace and then the necklace reappeared in Lori's locker at school, the attacker wasn't actually shown. I think that Declan even mentions in one episode that the "evidence" is questionable. Is this one of the things that was left unanswered, like many other things in the show's last episode?
Answer: Later in the series Jessi is reproached for attacking Lori several times. Her answer usually is something like "Yes, but I have changed since then". Not once does she deny doing it, once the truth is out. So, most likely, she did it.
Question: I'm looking for an audio version of the Buying a Bed sketch - where they have to get in a fish tank and sing Jerusalem. Does anyone know which album/CD it appears on? Thanks.
Answer: The sketch appears on their first album "Monty Python's Flying Circus" from 1970. BBC retained the rights to this album and it has not been re-released on CD as the other albums whose rights belong to the Pythons so you will probably only find it on (very used) vinyl.
Question: This is sort of a question for the Superman fan-verse, but I thought I'd ask it here. Is there an antidote for the effects of kyrptonite?
Chosen answer: No. Kryptonite as a plot device has changed from "every yahoo can get a chunk at the corner store" to an extremely rare element. It hardly ever shows up anymore. Also it really doesn't need an antidote. So long as it's removed from Superman's vicinity before he dies, he'll recover. Its effects don't linger like radioactive materials do for humans.
Answer: In Smallville, blue kryptonite does makes Kryptonians immune to the effects of green kryptonite. Although it does remove their super power abilities (by making them unable to process the power of the yellow sun). In some versions of the comics, blue kryptonite was the antidote for red kryptonite. In the comics, Supergirl tried to create an antidote to kryptonite which resulted in X-kryptonite.
Question: At the end of the movie, why does Ethan appear so shocked when the flight attendant asks if he wants to watch a movie? I understand that this is probably another mission, but why does he react the way he does?
Answer: Because he's resigned from the IMF. As such, he's more than a little surprised to be approached with another mission.
Answer: In addendum, only the leader of the group receives communication in this method. He's baffled because he's never been approached in this fashion, hence his utter confusion. Naturally, he catches on quickly.
Question: When Mido was trying to come up with a screen name for Oh Dae-Su early in the movie, why was Dae-Su so interested/startled by the mention of "The Count of Monte Cristo"?
Answer: Perhaps because in the movie/book "The Count of Monte Cristo" that's what happened to him. In the book/movie the hero Edmund Dantes is renamed "the Count" in order to disguise that fact that he is Dantes after having broken out of jail. This way he is free to seek revenge on the ones that put him in jail under false charges.
Question: I don't think this is ever answered in the movie, so could someone tell me approximately how much time has elapsed since Andy's escape, until he meets up with Red on the beach in Mexico? Or until Red gets paroled?
Answer: Andy escapes from Shawshank in August 1966, as evidenced by the date on the paper that Norton reads shortly before his suicide. Red's parole comes up the following year, 1967, exact date unknown. He then works at the store for an unspecified but short period of time before fulfilling his promise to Andy to go and find the box buried in the field - from the greenery visible, most likely in the mid-to-late summer - and he then heads to Mexico. In all likelihood, the total time between Andy's escape and he and Red being united is about a year, give or take a couple of months either way.
Plausible, but the question asked if the real time frame/date was addressed in the movie. I believe the answer is No. The date of escape was stated as 1966, but Red's release date was not formally indicated.
Simpsons Spin-off Showcase - S8-E24
Question: Is there a behind-the-scenes reason for Lisa being replaced by the blonde woman in the variety hour part of this episode?
Answer: It is a reference to the Brady bunch.
Answer: Lisa (the character, not the voice-actress) refused to take part in the show, since it is terrible. So the family re-cast her part.
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Chosen answer: He felt that it took too many liberties with the story. In the original agreement, Dahl himself was to write the screenplay (he was, by that point, a not-unsuccessful screenwriter), only to find that his version of the script was subsequently heavily re-written, including what Dahl felt were a number of unnecessary gimmicks, such as Wonka's penchant for literary quotations. Even the title of the film was changed from the original "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", in order to tie into the launch of the "Wonka Bar", a new candy bar made by the Quaker Oats company, who co-financed the film. Annoyed at all the changes, he ultimately disowned the film and refused to sell the cinematic rights to the sequel, "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator".
Tailkinker ★